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Below are links to Clear Admit's exclusive interviews with MBA admissions directors at leading programs.
Dawna Clarke (Tuck)
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Soojin Kwon Koh (Michigan)
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Linda Meehan (Columbia)
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Peter Johnson (Berkeley)
Isser Gallogly (NYU)
Mae Jennifer Shores (UCLA)
J.J. Cutler (Wharton)
Jake Cohen (INSEAD)
Rod Garcia (MIT Sloan)
Mary Miller (Columbia)

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Clear Admit Strategy Series
Craft a winning application with the Clear Admit Strategy Series! Step-by-Step guidance through the application process. Titles include a Resume Guide, Recommendations Guide, Waitlist Guide and more!

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Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

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Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay
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Stanford GSB*
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Yale SOM*
* denotes '09-'10 commentary

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Business School Resources
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

• knowledge@wharton
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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Trivia Tuesday: Honor Codes at Tuck, Yale SOM and Duke/Fuqua

Business ethics have been front page news for much of this decade. One way that business schools build ethical standards into their programs is through adopting school-wide honor codes that provide guidelines for student behavior. Although many schools have such codes, today we’ll examine the approaches taken by Tuck, Yale SOM, and Duke/Fuqua.

At Tuck, all students agree to abide by an Academic Honor Principle that emphasizes honesty and integrity both inside and outside the classroom. Closed-book mid-term and final exams are often unproctored or given as take-home tests, and students are trusted to comply with any restrictions on time or resources. The honor code is governed by a student judicial board; faculty and administrators intervene only when students are unable to resolve a matter of academic integrity.

Meanwhile, the Yale SOM upholds a formal honor code that guides the conduct of students, faculty and staff. While its implications extend into the social realm, it is most explicit about students’ conduct in academics and recruiting. In the academic realm, professors are expected to provide clear guidelines regarding assignment requirements and appropriate collaboration, and in turn, students must work fairly within groups and seek clarification from their professor if in doubt about the instructions. With respect to recruiting, students must adhere to the Career Development Office’s standards when attending interviews and responding to offers, as well as uphold a high level of professional behavior in all recruiting activities.

Yale students report that the Honor Code is heavily emphasized during pre-term, and that it permeates campus life thereafter. In routine academic life, students check themselves, both when working individually and in groups, to ensure that they are following the Honor Code, and many report that they enjoy having a high community standard to live up to and uphold. The administration takes the rare occurrences of academic or professional violations very seriously; alleged offenders must answer to a faculty and student committee that decides whether to excuse the accused party or recommend probation, suspension or even expulsion.

At Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, students operate under both Duke University’s expectation of high standards of scholarship and conduct and the Honor Code of the Fuqua School of Business. Violations of the Honor Code include lying, cheating, stealing, or failing to report one of the previously mentioned offenses, and disciplinary action may include suspension or expulsion. The Fuqua Honor Code became front-page news at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year when over 30 first-year students were found guilty of violating the Honor Code by improperly collaborating on a take-home test and nine of these students were recommended for expulsion. Although the story generated a great deal of public commentary on the questionable ethics of business school students, Fuqua’s administration and many of its students see the case as a sign of the school’s commitment to upholding high ethical standards within the community, regardless of the publicity generated.

For more information on schools’ honor codes, be sure to check out the Academics section of the Clear Admit School Guides!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:50 am in School Guides, School: Dartmouth / Tuck, School: Duke / Fuqua, School: Yale, Trivia Tuesday

Monday, February 08, 2010

GMAC Survey Shows Encouraging Job Statistics for Recent MBA Grads

The majority of last year’s MBA graduates accepted job offers within a few months of finishing school despite the tight labor market, according to a recent report from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC).

Results from GMAC’s semi-annual Alumni Perspectives Survey, released last week, showed that three-quarters of survey respondents who graduated from full-time MBA programs in 2009 had a job by September 2009, when the survey was conducted. Meanwhile, a whopping 96 percent of survey participants who completed part-time MBA programs in 2009 reported having jobs by September, and 85 percent of survey respondents who received other types of graduate management degrees in 2009 were employed by survey time. 

Overall, 3,966 graduates representing every business school class since 2000 responded to this year’s alumni survey. Of those, 1,208 received a graduate management degree in 2009.

According to David Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC, business school students have an edge in the job market thanks to the knowledge, skills and contacts they develop as part of MBA and other graduate management programs. “The remarkable success individuals with graduate management degrees continue to have when looking for employment – even in a down economy – is further evidence of the high value employers place on management education,” he said in a statement announcing the survey results.

Survey respondents themselves seemed to echo Wilson’s sentiments. Seventy-eight percent of respondents who graduated in 2009 felt that their degree was essential to landing their jobs, and 47 percent said they thought their employer placed particular value on their degree when hiring them.

Happy to land jobs relatively quickly, many survey respondents nonetheless found that the starting salaries they were offered were slightly lower than those offered to graduates from previous years. The median salary reported by survey participants from the class of 2009 was $79,271, compared to an $80,000 median starting salary for the class of 2008.

If slightly lower, the salaries offered were still satisfactory to the majority of survey respondents. Fifty-two percent said their pay met their expectations, while 14 percent said it exceeded what they’d anticipated receiving. Perhaps not surprisingly, respondents who said their compensation was less than they expected were among those reporting lower salaries than those who were happy with their pay.

To view the report in its entirety, click here.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:00 pm in MBA News, Uncategorized

Admissions Tip: Waitlist Correspondence

In addition to actively evaluating the applications of Round Two applicants at this time of year, many top programs revisit their Round One waitlists and consider the strength of those individuals with respect to the new information about the pool. While schools vary in their receptivity to correspondence from applicants, those programs that do welcome additional materials offer a great chance for waitlisted candidates to reaffirm their interest in the school and keep themselves fresh in the mind of the adcom.

With the notification dates for a number of second round schools coming up in a manner of weeks, we wanted to offer some tips to students who have been waitlisted at such programs while there’s still some time to tip the balance in their favor.

It’s clear that you should take advantage of this chance to add to your file, so the first real step is determining what you want – and need – to communicate in your waitlist correspondence. We suggest that you begin by revisiting your application with a critical eye. Being waitlisted is ultimately a positive sign of the strength of your candidacy, so it’s likely you’ve put together a very solid set of materials; you do, however, want to consider what you might have done to make your application even better. For instance, if your comments in your essays focused primarily on your work experience, you might want to convey some information about your outside interests and activities in your waitlist letter.

Another important aim is to cover new developments and recent improvements in your candidacy. For instance, have you made any progress toward your stated career goals? Visited the school? Taken on additional responsibility at work or in an extracurricular? Sharing impressive information about your work will help to underscore the idea that you are on an upward trajectory, while writing about additional steps you’ve taken to familiarize yourself with the program will emphasize your interest in attending.

In addition to considering content, presentation is also important. Rather than jotting off a few quick sentences to the adcom or the waitlist manager, you should treat any written contact as a formal element of your application, much like your essays, resume and data forms. This affords you a great chance to underscore your communication skills and ability to market yourself.

For more information on navigating waitlists, see this posting from the Clear Admit archives. Waitlisted applicants can also contact Clear Admit directly to learn more about our feedback reports and waitlist strategy sessions.

In addition, for valuable guidance about being on the waitlist, check out the Clear Admit Waitlist Guide.  This guide will teach you to understand the ground rules of a program’s waitlist policy, formulate a plan to address weaknesses in your candidacy, craft effective communications to the admissions committee and explore every opportunity to boost your chances of acceptance.  This 26-page PDF file, which includes school-specific waitlist policies and sample communication materials, is available for immediate download.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:32 am in Admissions Tips, Waitlist Advice

Saturday, February 06, 2010

GMAT Tip: How to Analyze a Critical Reasoning Question

Today’s GMAT tip comes from our friends at test prep firm ManhattanGMAT. In this article, ManhattanGMAT instructor Stacey Koprince offers advice on Critical Reasoning problems:

This week, we’re going to discuss how to analyze and master a particular GMATPrep® Critical Reasoning problem.

First, set your timer for 2 minutes and try this GMATPrep® problem:

“Because no employee wants to be associated with bad news in the eyes of a superior, information about serious problems at lower levels is progressively softened and distorted as it goes up each step in the management hierarchy. The chief executive is, therefore, less well informed about problems at lower levels than are his or her subordinates at those levels.

“The conclusion drawn above is based on the assumption that

“(A) problems should be solved at the level in the management hierarchy at which they occur

“(B) employees should be rewarded for accurately reporting problems to their superiors

“(C) problem-solving ability is more important at higher levels than it is at lower levels of the management hierarchy

“(D) chief executives obtain information about problems at lower levels from no source other than their subordinates

“(E) some employees are more concerned about truth than about the way they are perceived by their superiors”

After trying the problem, checking the answer, and reading and understanding the solution (if available), I try to answer these questions:

1. Did I know WHAT they were trying to test?

- Was I able to CATEGORIZE this question by topic and subtopic? By process / technique? If I had to look something up in my books, would I know exactly where to go?

→The question is a “Find the Assumption” CR question because the word “assumption” appears in the question stem. If I don’t remember how to do “Find the Assumption” questions, I’d go look in my book right now. If I had previously studied wrong answer choice types for Assumption questions, I’d also note which wrong answer choice types (if any) I recognized in this problem.

- Did I COMPREHEND the symbols, text, questions, statements, and answer choices? Can I comprehend it all now, when I have lots of time to think about it? What do I need to do to make sure that I do comprehend everything here? How am I going to remember whatever I’ve just learned for future?

→The first sentence of the argument is a premise – it’s designed to support what the author wants to claim. The second sentence is the conclusion – what the author is actually claiming. The author didn’t give any opposing information in this argument.

- Did I understand the actual CONTENT (facts, knowledge) being tested?

→CR questions don’t test particular facts, but they do test my knowledge of what I’m supposed to do on this type of CR question. On “Find the Assumption” questions, I need to find the answer that the author believes to be true, and that answer must also be something that is necessary in order for the author to draw his conclusion. If the author doesn’t have to believe the answer, then that answer isn’t necessary in order for the author to draw the conclusion.

2. How well did I HANDLE what they were trying to test?

- Did I choose the best APPROACH? Or is there a better way to do the problem? (There’s almost always a better way!) What is that better way? How am I going to remember this better approach the next time I see a similar problem?

→I forgot to read the question first, as I should have done – I read the argument first and only then read the question. Reading the question first allows me to categorize the argument immediately and have a better idea of what is important as I read through the argument. In some cases, reading the question first also tells me what the conclusion is (though not in this case). I need to make a note to read the question first every time and practice till it becomes a habit. Also, I don’t think I diagrammed (took notes) in the best way that I could have (see “careless mistakes” below).

- Did I have the SKILLS to follow through? Or did I fall short on anything?

→I didn’t actually remember that the correct answer would have to be necessary in order for the author to draw his conclusion. Because of that, I think I fell into a trap. I should also spend a bit more time studying the characteristics of wrong answers (see below).

- Did I make any careless mistakes? If so, WHY did I make each mistake? What habits could I make or break to minimize the chances of repeating that careless mistake in future?

→I didn’t immediately note that the first sentence gave a cause-and-effect scenario. That messed me up later because I didn’t note that the sequence of the argument was X → Y → Z, not just “a bunch of stuff leads to Z.” The word “because” at the beginning of the argument should have been my clue that even the premise was cause and effect. First, I’m going to re-write the notes the way they should have been done, then I’m going to make a list of all of the words that I can think of that signal cause-and-effect, and then I’m going to scan through some old CRs I’ve already done to try to spot cause-effect premises. (And, of course, I will keep an eye on this issue when I do future problems.)

For verbal, the following two questions can be combined:

- Am I comfortable with OTHER STRATEGIES that would have worked, at least partially? How should I have made an educated guess?

- Do I understand every TRAP & TRICK that the writer built into the question, including wrong answers?

→Answer A is tempting to choose because it seems like a pretty good assumption to make in the real world; Answer A is wrong, though, because how the problems “should” be solved doesn’t tell me anything about how well-informed the chief executive is about those problems.

→Answer B is tempting to choose because it sounds like a good way to resolve the problem described in the argument. Answer B is wrong, though, because we weren’t asked to resolve the problem; we were asked to articulate a belief (an assumption) of the author who is pointing out the problem.

→Answer C is tempting to choose because it sounds like a pretty good assumption to make in the real world. Answer C is wrong, though, because the ability to solve a problem still doesn’t tell me anything about how well-informed the chief executive is about those problems.

→Answer choice D is tempting to eliminate because it sounds like a pretty bad assumption to make in the real world; it’s probably not true that a CEO only gets info from subordinates. Answer D is right, though, because this is exactly the (bad!) assumption that the author makes to draw his conclusion. If CEOs really can’t get info from anyone other than their subordinates, and if those subordinates don’t want to tell them any bad news, then those CEOs are not going to be well-informed about problems.

→Answer choice E is tempting to choose because it is undoubtedly true in the real world –some people will tell their bosses the complete truth about problems. Answer choice E is wrong, though, because it weakens the argument: if some subordinates are speaking up, then the bosses aren’t less well-informed. We were asked to find an assumption, and an assumption is something the author must believe to be true in order to draw that conclusion. If the answer choice actually weakens the conclusion, then that answer can’t be a valid assumption (and now I know that’s true for all future Assumption questions!).

3. How well did I or could I RECOGNIZE what was going on?

- Did I make a CONNECTION to previous experience? If so, what problem(s) did this remind me of and what, precisely, was similar? Or did I have to do it all from scratch? If so, see the next bullet.

→Yes. I recognized that this was an assumption question because I’d studied how assumption questions are typically worded. I should have recognized more though (see below).

- Can I make any CONNECTIONS now, while I’m analyzing the problem? What have I done in the past that is similar to this one? How are they similar? How could that recognition have helped me to do this problem more efficiently or effectively? (This may involve looking up some past problem and making comparisons between the two!)

→I could have done better with recognizing the X → Y → Z setup more quickly so that I could have taken more clear notes. I also fell into a “sounds good in the real world” trap that caused me to pick the wrong answer, as well as a “sounds bad in the real world” trap that caused me to eliminate the right answer. In the future, I will know that how it sounds in the real world is not a good reason to pick or eliminate an answer.

- HOW will I recognize similar problems in the future? What can I do now to maximize the chances that I will remember and be able to use lessons learned from this problem the next time I see a new problem that tests something similar?

→I need to do everything I already described in my notes above. I’m also going to go back and look through some old Assumption problems that I’ve already done. I’ll identify why each answer is tempting (to choose or eliminate, as appropriate) and why it’s actually right or wrong, looking to see if I can recognize the kinds of traps I identified on this problem (especially the “sounds wrong in the real world” right answer!).

And that’s it! Note that, of course, the details above are specific to each individual person – such a write-up would be different for every single one of you, depending upon your particular strengths, weaknesses, and mistakes. Hopefully, though, this gives you a better idea of the way to analyze a problem. This framework also gives you a valuable way to discuss problems with fellow online students or in study groups – this is the kind of discussion that really helps to maximize scores.

* GMATPrep® question courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.

For more information on ManhattanGMAT, download Clear Admit’s independent guide to the leading test preparation companies here.  This FREE guide includes coupons for discounts on test prep services at ten different firms!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 9:00 am in GMAT - Verbal, GMAT Practice Problem, GMAT Tips

Friday, February 05, 2010

Good News About Job Prospects on Business School Campuses

After two tough years, it seems like job prospects may be getting a little better for this year’s graduating class of MBAs. In a blog post Monday, the dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas shared that he’s seeing an up-tick in recruiter visits for the school’s spring Career Expo. And according to a report yesterday in Bloomberg News, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School also sees job prospects improving this spring.

Thomas Gilligan, dean of UT’s McCombs School of Business, shared some promising news in a post to the school’s blog earlier this week. As of that writing, 84 companies had registered for the school’s Career Expo, which took place on Wednesday, up from 74 last spring, and the career services director was expecting more to register in the final days before the event. Meanwhile the school’s SuperWeek for investment banking and consulting, held in mid-January, attracted 20 companies seeking MBAs. Finally, MBA Director of Career Services Stacey Rudnick reports that postings for MBA internships are also up this year over last.

“I’m not a Pollyanna, our students still face a tough career environment and it concerns me,” Gilligan wrote. “I’m just pleased we’re aggressively pursuing opportunities, and our recruiting numbers are holding steady with the best of our peer schools,” he added.

Halfway across the country, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is also seeing improved job prospects for its students. According to a Bloomberg News report Thursday, the school has more off-campus job postings this year than last. And more second-year MBA students appear to have accepted full-time job offers than last year, Director of MBA Career Management Michelle Antonio told Bloomberg.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:00 pm in MBA News, School: Penn / Wharton, School: UT Austin / McCombs

Fridays From The Frontline

Hello, and welcome to a brand new edition of Fridays From the Frontlines, Clear Admit’s latest look-see into the large and delightful MBA applicant, and current student, blogosphere. As more round one notifications were sent out, this week had a lot of b-school hopefuls reporting their good and bad news. Current students, especially first years, were a bit more subdued that normal … perhaps the bloom is off the second semester rose?

Steve looked forward to his Superbowl plans outside of Philly, and expressed his appreciation for the MBA blogging community. Beautiful Mind gave his readers a sense of all the things on his schedule, and wished for 48 hours in a day. XLick celebrated a birthday and thought that all his fellow MBA applicant bloggers could guess what his wish was. HBS Dork gave his ‘two cents’ on the President’s recent State of the Union address. Braveheart reviewed the newest novel by Chetan Bhagat. AJ applied the time management matrix lessons she was currently learning to her MBA applications. Rocky also hoped to bolster his time management skills, not to mention his ability to speak French.  Madalogue received a zap from Darden, attended a Tepper event in Bangalore and happily shared her acceptance news from Olin. Hari enjoyed his IESE assessment day and all the people he met. MBA Hopeful also had positive news to share: he was accepted by MIT … now all he had to do was figure out how he was going to finance the degree and when he would depart from his current job.  The happy news kept on coming, as Fuqua invited Ardent Meerkat to interview later in the month. LBiggs‘ application hopes were revived when she, too, received an interview invite from Fuqua. Shubha shared his Cornell interview experience, which we hope he shared with the Clear Admit Wiki as well! While Dream Chaser was happy to have his Kellogg admit in hand, he was still disappointed that his Sloan application had been pushed to round two.

First years were a quiet bunch this week. Kellogg ‘11 Orlando reflected on his choice of blog name and clarified that his blog was just one person’s perspective, not the entire class of 2011. Stanford ‘11 Palo Alto For a While faced tough decisions in her summer job hunt.

Darden ‘10 Oren returned from an Israel trek. Fellow classmate Mechanigal shared a video that helped her see how the movie industry and an MBA are mutually exclusive. Harvard ‘10 Gabrielle also had movies on her mind as she recapped her first day of film-watching at Sundance. While she was still enjoying the experience of studying in Sweden, Darden ‘10 July Dream experienced something that resembled homesickness. McCombs ‘10 Metal spent eight hours preparing his case write-up for his Global Finance class.

And that concludes this week’s round up of the always interesting activities and thoughts of the b-school blogosphere. We hope that good news continues to roll in for aspirants, and that current students find their ‘groove’ for this new semester. Until next week, have a great weekend!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 3:01 am in Fridays from the Frontline

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Twitter Thursdays: News from MBA Programs

Welcome to another installment of Twitter Thursdays, a weekly column in which we highlight the updates of the top MBA programs on Twitter!  If you’re not following Clear Admit already, be sure to check us out on Twitter for updates, special prizes, admissions tips and breaking news.   We’ve also created a list of MBA programs to ease your daily access to breaking news from the top MBA programs, as reported by admissions committee members themselves.

The Assistant Dean of UCLA Anderson MBA Admissions & Financial Aid, Mae Jennifer Shores, has been busy reviewing applicants’ audio essays.  UCLA’s film students took a turn animating submissions from last year, which can be viewed on the school’s site. As Clear Admit covered earlier this week, Rich Lyons, the Dean of the Haas School of Business, officially posted the school’s new strategic plan.    MBA Admissions Coordinator at Judge Business School, James Barker, hosted a slew of prospective applicants on Cambridge’s Open Day.  Jon Fuller, the Senior Associate Director of Admissions at the Ross School of Business, shared some more waitlist tips.

Chicago Booth unveiled its top 10 myths about the admissions process, but it’s true that they have yet to release half of the Round 2 interview invitations.   Back in Boston, MIT Sloan announced a new graduate Sustainability Certificate.  The Wharton School welcomed prospective members of the MBA class of 2012 during Wharton Winter Welcome. For some insight into the admissions process, The Kellogg School of Management linked to the recent BusinessWeek chat with Beth Flye and Carla Edelston.

That concludes Twitter Thursdays this week!  If you’re on Twitter, let us know; e-mail wiki@clearadmit.com with your user name and status as an MBA applicant, student or admissions officer so we can add you to the appropriate Twitter list.  Happy “tweeting” and we’ll see you next week with some more Twitter updates!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 3:27 pm in Fridays from the Frontline, Twitter, Twitter Thursdays

Aspen Center for Business Education Launches the Oath Project

Together with three other partner organizations, the Aspen Center for Business Education (CBE) has launched the Oath Project, an initiative to support the individuals and organizations that have been working to promote the concept of a business professional oath similar to the Hippocratic oath that doctors take swearing to practice medicine ethically.

Aspen CBE is a division of the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering value-based leadership. Its partners in the Oath Project are the Association for Professional Business Managers, MBA Oath and the World Economic Forum for Young Global Leaders. Together, these four organizations have launched a website, TheOathProject.org, to communicate the initiative’s objectives and milestones.

The release from Aspen CBE announcing the new project’s launch noted that the idea of creating a business oath is not a new one. The creation of MBA programs in the United States grew in part out of a desire to “professionalize” the practice of management, and several schools have instituted their own oaths at various times.

Amid the recent economic crisis, management education has come under fire from some critics, and the idea of a global MBA oath has gained new life. Two Harvard professors suggested a draft oath in a November 2008 article in the Harvard Business Review, and World Economic Forum Executive Director Klaus Schwab devoted a special session during the January 2009 forum to begin the process of creating a global business oath.

Then, in May 2009, a grassroots movement led by students at Harvard Business School created the MBA Oath, which was signed by more than half of the HBS graduating class of 2009. According to the Aspen CBE release, 1,000 other business school students from MBA programs around the world also opted to take the oath last spring, and as many as a dozen other groups and individuals took their own modified or translated oath.

The Oath Project is rooted in the idea that for the project to succeed, MBA programs worldwide must come to consensus around a single oath for all to share. “We are currently at the ‘final draft’ stage of this oath, and are seeking feedback before we finalize the oath for 2010,” the Aspen CBE release stated.

To learn more about the Oath Project, click here.

What do you think? Should all MBA students take a common oath pledging to practice business ethically upon graduation? Share your comments here.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:00 pm in General, MBA News, School: Harvard

Campus Chronicles: The Wharton Journal

With the arrival of February this week and all eyes on Punxsutawney Phil , we thought we’d take a trip to another region of Pennsylvania and check out The Wharton Journal to see what’s been going on at the University of Pennsylvania’s MBA campus.

This week Wharton hosted a celebratory open house for the newly renovated building that now houses both the Wharton Leadership Program and Center for Leadership and Change Management.  Jeff Klein, the Director of the Wharton Graduate Leadership Program, states that with both programs located in the same place, there will be increased opportunities for collaboration in programming, staff communication, and teamwork.  The center includes open cubicles, designated group work spaces, and break rooms, all of which are designed to increase the social and academic experience of students and staff.  Students, staff, faculty, and university partners attended the open house and heard speeches from various Wharton leaders, including Mike Useem, who heads the Center for Leadership and Change Management.  With the new facilities, Wharton Dean Thomas S. Robertson stated he is confident in the school’s ability to help students become leaders, not just managers, in both the public and private sectors.

The Wharton Partners Clubs, the organization of Wharton students’ significant others, has renamed itself as “Cohort P” – though obviously not an official “cohort” of the school, this organization offers support to partners of Wharton students who are interested in becoming more integrated into and involved in the Philadelphia social, academic, work, and volunteer scene.  With 167 members, this organization is an important resource for both Wharton partners and Wharton students themselves, and hosts movie nights, happy hours, cooking classes, a monthly book club, and trips around Philadelphia.

Wharton students are also getting ready to submit their photos to the Wharton Yearbook, a tradition almost 20 years old.  Every year the Wharton Yearbook chronicles the student experience, such as cohort and social activities, trips and treks, and other University events.   Students are able to reserve copies so they ensure that they get their hands on this book full of memories and potential future networking material.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 5:46 am in Campus Chronicles, School: Penn / Wharton

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

GMAT Tip: Think Like the Testmaker Series, Volume 6

Today’s GMAT tip comes from our friends at Veritas Prep. In today’s article, they present the sixth installment of their “Think Like the Testmaker Series,” which focuses this week on solving quantitative questions in an efficient manner:

Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company’s GMAT prep courses.

At graduate school functions, a common elitist quip from engineers and scientists when talking to MBA students is to ask, “Are you majoring in PowerPoint, or Excel?” (A similarly-popular retort is “I’m majoring in outsourcing your job”) While, obviously, business school curriculum is much more substantive than some graduate counterparts will like to admit, the truth does remain that you will use programs like Microsoft Excel quite often in business school, and you’ll also need to buy a fairly sophisticated financial calculator. So, knowing that, why would the GMAT not allow you to use a calculator or spreadsheet device on its quantitative section?

The reason that the GMAT prohibits calculators is that its primary concern is not to test your ability to “crunch numbers,” but rather to assess your ability to problem solve using numbers. In fact, in many cases, questions are crafted in an attempt to bait you in to an attempt to calculate numbers by hand that will be a sufficient combination of time-consuming and error-prone to cripple your test performance and elicit an incorrect answer.

Knowing that the GMAT isn’t a math skills test, but rather a test of problem solving, efficiency, and other, more business-oriented skills and traits, you should prepare yourself to recognize when problems can be solved in a simpler way. Often times, this can be done by recognizing patterns in the ways that numbers interact. Consider the question:

What is the units digit of 2²⁵ – 6⁷?

In seeing this question, you may well think that, although it may take some time, you can work through the calculations and actually determine the values of the two exponential terms. After all:

2¹ = 2

2² = 4

2³ = 8

2⁴ = 16

2⁵ = 32

4⁶ = 64

And so on. How much more work can it be to get to the 25th power? Well, as the numbers get bigger, you’ll undoubtedly slow down in calculating them — 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, and that only gets us to the 13th power with the real heavy lifting still to come. If you’ve noticed from the question, however, that the question specifically and exclusively asks for the units digit — the last digit before the decimal point — then you can eliminate most of the work. You don’t need to calculate that 2⁵ = 32, as long as you know that 2⁵ yields a units digit of 2. Multiply by 2, and you’ll know that 2⁶ yields a 4, 2⁷ yields an 8, etc.

What’s more, you can also begin to notice that a pattern emerges, as there is a cycle: 2, 4, 8, 6, 2, 4, 8, 6… The cycle repeats every fourth digit, with the fourth unique digit in the sequence being 6. Therefore, the result for each exponent that is a multiple of four is 6, so 2²⁴ will yield a 6. 2²⁵ is the next term in the cycle, so the units digit will be 2.

Sixes are easier : 6¹ = 6; 6² = 36; 6³ = 216… This pattern dictates that multiplying a units digit of 6 by 6 is going to yield a 6, so regardless of the exponent (as long as it’s a positive integer) the units digit will be a 6, and you don’t really have to do any math.

One last twist to this problem: you need to realize that 2²⁵ will be considerably larger than 6⁷, so your subtraction problem will look something like:

XXXXXXXXXXX2
– YYYYYYYY6

The answer, then, is 6, as this problem will take the form of 12-6 (since this multiple of 2 is clearly larger than this multiple of 6), and not of 2-6 (yielding -4), which would be the case if the 2 term were known to be smaller than the 6 term.

Again, the GMAT is testing something a little higher-order than math here — did you consider all of the possibilities, or make a quick, incorrect assumption when you thought you were done?

For more information on Veritas Prep, download Clear Admit’s independent guide to the leading test preparation companies here.  This FREE guide includes coupons for discounts on test prep services at ten different firms!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 8:00 pm in GMAT - Quantitative, GMAT Tips

Submit an MBA Interview Report for Columbia Business School, Cornell / Johnson, NYU / Stern or UCLA / Anderson, Win a $10 Gift Card to Amazon!

Welcome to February’s first installment of Wiki Wednesdays, in which we set a spotlight on the latest submissions to the Clear Admit Wiki, an online repository for MBA applicants to share their experiences with admissions interviews.  We’ve received a number of interview reports this past week – for Chicago Booth, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, IESE, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg and UVA / Darden – and we’d like to thank everyone who has been sharing their experiences this season!

Before getting into contest details, let’s take a peek at a few snippets from some of the latest contributions!  A Round 2 applicant to IESE shared the following questions from an adcom member:

1. Tell me something about your family.
2. Describe your school life.
3. When is the last time you met your college friends?
4. How would your friends describe you?
5. Describe the characteristics of your best friend.
6. What is your take on the trade situation in China?
7. Are you comfortable talking in front of/ addressing large audiences of 70-80 people?
8. How will you finance your MBA, if you don’t get a scholarship?

On behalf of Booth, an alumnus interviewed a Round 2 candidate:

1. What do you expect from Booth?
2. Which other schools are you applying to?
3. What leadership experiences you have? How is your interaction day to day with your team?
4. What do you expect from your MBA in the long term?
5. What are the differences you’ve found between different nationalities while working in a multinational?

Thank you to everyone who has helped fellow applicants by sharing your interview experience!  If you’re eager to contribute, we’ll be awarding a $10 Amazon gift certificate to applicants that submit interview reports for Columbia Business School, Cornell / Johnson, NYU / Stern or UCLA / Anderson through next Tuesday, February 9th!  In other words, all you have to do is send us your interview field report for the selected schools for inclusion in the Wiki and we’ll send you a $10 Amazon gift certificate.   You must send your interview report to wiki@clearadmit.com to be eligible; we’ll post it to the Wiki and notify the winners by e-mail (Limit: one iTunes or Amazon gift card per person).

The most helpful and informative reports usually include the following information:

1. Date/Admissions Round
2. Description of visit and/or interview atmosphere
3. Type of interview (alum vs. adcom, blind vs. application-based)
4. List of interview questions
5. Commentary (What did you think of the interview? What surprised you? What didn’t surprise you? What might you conclude about the school based on this experience?)

Applicants who would like to supplement the information available on the Wiki can check out our Clear Admit Interview Guides, which provide school-specific insight about admissions interviews.  Best of luck to those undergoing Round 2 interviews!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:17 pm in School: Chicago, School: Columbia, School: Cornell / Johnson, School: IESE, School: NYU Stern, School: UCLA / Anderson, Wiki Wednesdays

Half of Chicago Booth Round Two Interview Invitations Still to Go Out

Haven’t received an invitation to interview as part of the University of Chicago Booth Scool of Business’s second round? Don’t despair, says Dean of Admissions Rose Martinelli. Many invitations are still to go out.

“I want to assure you that we are still evaluating applications,” she wrote on her blog yesterday. “ In fact, we’ve just crossed 50% as of today,” she continued, adding that her office will need every day between now and the February 17th notification deadline for the round to evaluate the remaining applications and extend interview invitations.

She reminded applicants about what they should expect from the interview, encouraging them to be prepared to answer basic questions about the MBA and their own future goals. As examples, she offered the following:

• Can I clearly articulate my career plan and future goals? 
• What do I really want from my MBA experience? 
• What is my motivation to obtain an MBA? 
• Why is Chicago Booth the right place for me, and why am I right for Booth? 
• How do I plan to use my MBA in my career? 

Beyond these types of questions, the interview will be behaviorally-oriented, calling on applicants to discuss how they approached a situation or challenge in the past, she wrote. “Think about experiences that you can use to address these types of questions,” she suggested, and practice a few times with friends or colleagues.

Finally, relax and just focus on having a conversation with your interviewer, she said. “Remember, the interviewer knows Booth well, but not you. So feel free to allow the conversation to be two way,” she suggested. The interview is just one of many components of your application, she concluded.

Don’t forget that you can follow other applicants’ progress through the interview process – and share your own experience – on the Clear Admit Wiki. And you can check out the Clear Admit Chicago Booth Interview Guide for valuable insight on exactly how to prepare for your own interview. Good luck!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:00 pm in Interview Tips, School: Chicago

Wharton Executive MBA Deadline Extended

Today, in a post on the Wharton Executive MBA blog, the admissions committee announced that those interested in the EMBA program could contact them to discuss an application extension.  While the original deadline for both the Philadelphia and San Francisco programs was this past Monday, February 1, the school is open to accommodating later submissions.

For those who did meet Wharton’s deadline, the staff is busy processing applications, ensuring each piece is present.  The admissions committee also noted that applicants have until March 1 to take or retake the GMAT.  Plus, interview slots are filling quickly, so contact them as soon as possible to secure a spot; West Coast applicants have until March 10th to complete interviews and East Coast applicants have until March 17. San Francisco program admissions decisions will be made by March 26 and Philadelphia decisions no later than April 9.

If you’re interested in applying to an Executive MBA program, send your CV to Clear Admit at info@clearadmit.com to discuss our consulting and counseling services.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 10:16 am in Deadlines, EMBA, MBA News, School: Penn / Wharton

What is Your Waitlist Strategy?

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 3:00 am in Poll

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Trivia Tuesday: Ross M-Treks

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly look at the distinguishing resources and opportunities offered by the leading business schools. Today we turn our attention to the Ross M-Trek program at the University of Michigan. Ross is one of the few schools that give students an opportunity to jump-start their friendships with classmates through participation in outdoor experiential learning trips.

Prior to the start of Michigan’s formal pre-term and orientation programs, incoming students are invited to participate in M-Trek, an outdoor leadership program designed to foster leadership and teamwork skills while introducing students to their classmates. The trips were started in 1999 by a group of first-year students who wanted to strengthen the bonds between incoming classmates through experiential learning. The program has grown significantly since its inaugural year. Currently around 40-50% of incoming students participate in a Trek, with approximately 20% of second-year students choosing to lead a Trek. In August 2009, the Class of 2011 chose from 20 M-Trek trips.

The trips, which range from one-week to ten days, are entirely student-run and each is led by a group of three to four second-year students. Destinations range from North America and Europe to Africa and Latin America, with trips designed for a variety of skill levels and interests and with prices ranging from $400-$2,700, plus airfare. By tradition, the M-Trek trip names tend to incorporate a pun on the destination, and the 2009 Trek names were no exception. Some sample trip names include Kauai the Heck Not, Don’t Stop Belize’n, and MoroccOMG!; students on these trips traveled to Hawaii, Belize and Morocco, respectively.

For more information on Ross’s M-Treks or the outdoor learning programs offered by other business schools, be sure to check out the Pre-Term & Orientation section of the Clear Admit School Guides!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 2:00 pm in School Guides, School: Michigan / Ross, Trivia Tuesday

Changes Ahead at UC Berkeley’s Haas School Under New Strategic Plan

Rich Lyons, dean of the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School, yesterday unveiled a new strategic plan for the school centered on developing leaders who redefine how business is done.

The strategy calls for changes to the school’s core curriculum, commitment to faculty and resource development and campus improvements designed to showcase the school’s distinctive culture and help develop in students the skill sets required of this new kind of leader.

“We live in a world where value in the marketplace is increasingly driven by ideas that are not yet widely known nor fully proven. This is true whether you’re producing cars or producing what are clearly products of the mind,” Lyons said in a statement. “We wanted to be out in front of this shift and produce the kind of leaders who can deliver into these future needs.”

The new Haas Strategic Plan is built around four defining principles that the Haas community identified in discussions over the past year as differentiating the school from others. They are 

• Question the status quo
• Confidence without attitude 
•  Students always 
•  Beyond yourself

“These principles have always been important elements of Haas culture, but they have not been articulated until now,” Lyons said. “Having awareness and consensus around who we are will help us work toward a shared goal and attract the strongest talent for faculty and students,” he continued.

Moving forward, the school will implement its new strategy along three main areas of focus, with funding provided by an ongoing $300 million capital campaign.

Those areas of focus will include redefining the business graduate through key changes in the core curriculum and new extracurricular programs; realizing Haas’s intellectual future by expanding its tenure-track faculty and developing new centers for business innovation and teaching excellence; and transforming the Haas campus through implementation of a new facilities master plan. Among other things, this new facilities plan calls for an active Haas central courtyard with café and work space where people can convene and collaborate, a building addition to house new classrooms and new executive education space.

To view the strategic plan in its entirety, click here.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 8:45 am in MBA News, School: Berkeley / Haas

Monday, February 01, 2010

AACSB International, Net Impact Partner to Encourage Donations to Haitian Relief Efforts

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International has joined with Net Impact to encourage business school communities around the globe to contribute to relief efforts in Haiti following the devastating earthquake that took place there earlier this year.

AACSB is the main accrediting agency for business schools worldwide, and Net Impact is a global organization of MBA students and graduates committed to using business to improve the world. AACSB includes 1,200 educational institutions, businesses and other organizations, and Net Impact has chapters on more than 150 MBA and graduate school campuses.

Together, the two organizations are encouraging their members to join together and donate to relief efforts in Haiti.

“As educators and corporate citizens, we have the unique opportunity on a daily basis to mold the minds, actions and benevolent spirit of the next generation of leaders,” AACSB President Jose Fernandez and Net Impact Executive Director Liz Maw said in a letter to members. “During a time of such crisis and as socially responsible concerns, it is now that we must encourage our communities to join in the universal relief efforts and answer the call with fundraising and volunteer efforts,” they continued.

As further encouragement, AACSB and Net Impact plan in the coming weeks to feature business schools and corporations that have demonstrated a spirit of generosity and social responsibility toward the situation in Haiti. Schools and businesses are invited to submit accounts of their fundraising and volunteer efforts to amyp@aacsb.edu.

For more on this initiative, click here.

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:00 pm in General, MBA News

Admissions Tip: The Interview Final Touch

Over the last months, we’ve focused on helping applicants prepare to answer the various questions they’ll be posed during their interviews, but there is one in particular to which we have not paid much attention. Today, we wanted to offer a few tips in navigating the nearly inevitable interview finisher: “Do you have any questions for me?”

This seems like a harmless inquiry, and indeed poses a great opportunity, but there’s actually a fine line to walk here. You certainly want to take advantage of this opportunity to show the interviewer that you appreciate his or her time, perspective and knowledge. In determining what to ask, however, you need to avoid those questions to which you could easily find an answer on the school’s website (remember that it’s imperative that you show you’ve done your homework), as well as those that are so specific or obscure that they will stump the interviewer. Another sort of question to avoid are those that seem to be critical of the program or too concerned with other applicants; now is not the time to ask about application volume or the strength of the pool this year.

What does that leave? More than you might initially expect. We’ve found that a great approach is to ask your interviewer about his or her own perspective and experience. Current students and alums, who involve themselves in the admissions process are generally those who are having or have had a positive experience in business school. If your interviewer falls into one of these categories, he or she will likely appreciate the chance to talk about a favorite class or professor, or comment on involvement in a certain club. Meanwhile, when engineering questions to pose to full-time admissions staff, remember that these individuals likely have less in-depth information but a longer-term perspective on the program than would someone who is currently attending or has attended.

Armed with these tips, you should be able to foster a positive and productive conversation, learn a bit more about the program in question, and make a positive impression on your interviewer.

If you have further inquiries about the best questions to pose in your interview (or any other aspect of the interview process), contact Clear Admit directly and sign up for our mock interview service (info@clearadmit.com). We offer school-by-school interview guides, strategy sessions and mock interviews to help you perform at your best on interview day. Also, do not forget to use the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Wiki as a resource for interview preparations!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 9:01 am in Admissions Tips, Interview Guides, Interview Tips

Saturday, January 30, 2010

GMAT Practice Problem: Rhymes and Divisibility

Today’s GMAT challenge question comes from our friends at ManhattanGMAT.  To help you with your GMAT studying, try to solve the problem on your own, and then read on for the explanation of its solution:

Problem

Two different primes may be said to “rhyme” around an integer if they are the same distance from the integer on the number line. For instance, 3 and 7 rhyme around 5. What integer between 1 and 20, inclusive, has the greatest number of distinct rhyming primes around it?

(A) 12
(B) 15
(C) 17
(D) 18
(E) 20

Solution

First, make sure that you understand the new concept that the problem presents: “rhyming primes,” which are the same distance on the number line from a central number. You are given an example: 3 and 7 rhyme around 5, since both are 2 units away from 5 on the number line. Don’t let the new terminology confuse you. Instead, try to rephrase the concept into something you’re more familiar with. Ideally, you recognize that “rhyming” is just another way to say “average (arithmetic mean)” – saying “3 and 7 rhyme around 5” is the same thing as saying “the average of 3 and 7 is 5.” So, rhyming primes rhyme around their average. Alternatively, we can say that the sum of two rhyming primes (e.g., 3 and 7) is twice the central number (2×5 = 10). Sums are quick operations, so it might be good to rephrase our question in terms of taking sums of two primes.

We are asked which integer between 1 and 20, inclusive, has the greatest number of rhyming primes around it. So we should list out the primes up to 40, since the larger number in any pair of rhyming primes that average to 20 would have to be below 40 (primes are restricted to positive integers).

Here are the primes less than 40:
2
3
5
7
11
13
17
19
23
29
31
37

Rephrasing the question in terms of sums, we can ask: what number between 1 and 20, when multiplied by 2, can be expressed as a sum of two different primes from this list in the greatest number of different ways?

We should now start from the answer choices, rather than test all 20 theoretical possibilities. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut; you actually have to check the possibilities. Primes are unevenly distributed, so there’s no way to intuit the answer.

We should start by checking the highest number, because we will probably be able to construct more valid pairs around larger numbers than around smaller numbers. Construct the pairs by inspecting your list of primes. Since you know the smaller primes better than larger primes, and since the larger primes are more spread out, put the larger prime first in the potential sum, then look for the smaller prime in the second position.

(E) 20×2 = 40
37 + 3 = 40
29 + 11 = 40
23 + 17 = 40
20 has 3 rhyming pairs of primes, or 6 rhyming primes.

(D) 18×2 = 36
31 + 5 = 36
29 + 7 = 36
23 + 13 = 36
19 + 17 = 36
18 has 4 rhyming pairs of primes, or 8 rhyming primes. If we had to pick right now, because of time pressure, we would pick D.

(C) 17×2 = 34
31 + 3 = 34
29 + 5 = 34
23 + 11 = 34
19 + 15 doesn’t work
Also, 17 + 17 doesn’t work, because the definition of “rhyming” indicates that the primes must be different.
17 has 3 rhyming pairs of primes, or 6 rhyming primes. D is still our tentative answer.

(B) 15×2 = 30
29 + 1 doesn’t work, because 1 isn’t prime.
23 + 7 = 30
19 + 11 = 30
17 + 13 = 30
15 has 3 rhyming pairs of primes, or 6 rhyming primes. D is looking better and better.

(A) 12×2 = 24
19 + 5 = 24
17 + 7 = 24
13 + 11 = 24
12 has 3 rhyming pairs of primes, or 6 rhyming primes.

Answer choice (D), 18, is the correct answer.

For more information on ManhattanGMAT, download Clear Admit’s independent guide to the leading test preparation companies here.  This FREE guide includes coupons for discounts on test prep services at ten different firms!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 9:00 am in GMAT - Quantitative, GMAT News, GMAT Practice Problem, GMAT Test Prep Company Series, GMAT Tips

Friday, January 29, 2010

Fridays From The Frontline

Hello and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s round up of the best news from a battalion of b-school bloggers. This week found applicants getting results and sitting for interviews, while current students were talking internships and networking.

Dream Chaser shared an interesting video about the future of Asia, which he found on an ESADE student blog. Steve thought that the new dean of NYU had great ideas, but felt they might be difficult to implement. After weeks of prep, and foot surgery, XLick finally had his Stern interview (which we hope he shares with the Clear Admit Wiki).  Rocky jumped into a forum discussion about the value of an MBA. In the days leading up to Haas notifications, MBA Hopeful had two Berkeley-inspired dreams and eventually found out that, in waking life, he was on the waitlist. Madalogue received a zap from Darden, but prepared for her Olin interview. HBSDork continued to prepare for his arrival in Boston by doing his ‘due diligence’ on possible apartments. The majority of Natalie’s applications were complete, but she still had one more round with the GMAT to complete. Biz Wiz anticipated Apple’s newest product and presented  his theory that Steve Jobs is from another planet.

Kellogg ‘11 Orlando, having finally gotten to the interview stage of recruiting, shared his thoughts on how to handle the consulting recruiting process. IIMC ‘11 Tauqueer made up a new word: ‘detweetify.’ Wake Forest ‘11 Omne returned to the blog after a lengthy absence, and also started his summer internship interviews. Fuqua ‘11 Choc Heaven attributed her long blog silence to the ‘all engulfing’ nature of business school. Stanford ‘11 Palo Alto for a While delved a bit deeper into what made her first semster difficult, but noted that it was becoming harder to remember the struggle. Haas ‘11 Lauren did not find her second semester to be any easier than the first.

Darden ‘10 Mechanigal enjoyed the opportunity to listen to an alumnus share his insights on how best to move forward professionally, and was going to try to ‘think big, and then small.’ LBS ‘10 Out on a Limb shamelessly plugged his school’s recent success in the Financial Times ranking of MBA programs. Darden ‘10 Oren also received some appreciated words of wisdom from Darden alumni, which included the importance of networking and marketing. Marshall ‘10 Andrew reflected on how his perspective on networking had changed over the years. Harvard ‘10 Gabrielle couldn’t believe she was in her final semester and consolidated past course material so it could better fit underneath her bed.  Darden ‘10 July Dream received a full-time job offer and, as much as she was enjoying her Swedish exchange experience, realized that Darden students are spoiled. After only a few days, McCombs ‘10 Metal couldn’t believe how busy his semester schedule had become.

And that concludes this week’s issue of Fridays From the Frontline. We hope all applicant bloggers continue to keep us updated on their latest acceptance/zap news, and that current students are enjoying their return to academia. Until next week, have a great weekend!

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# posted by Clear Admit @ 3:00 am in Fridays from the Frontline

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ACTIVE CONTENT

• Trivia Tuesday: Honor Codes at Tuck, Yale SOM and Duke/Fuqua
• GMAC Survey Shows Encouraging Job Statistics for Recent MBA Grads
• Admissions Tip: Waitlist Correspondence
• GMAT Tip: How to Analyze a Critical Reasoning Question
• Good News About Job Prospects on Business School Campuses

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The Clear Admit Wiki is designed to allow b-school applicants to share their experiences through the application process. You can learn from others' experiences and contribute your own reports to the community. Below are the five most popular pages in the wiki:
Wharton Interview Field Reports
HBS Interview Field Reports
Kellogg Interview Field Reports
Chicago Interview Field Reports
Columbia Interview Field Reports

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The BusinessWeek Discussion Boards are another way to learn about the issues applicants face. Clear Admit hosts the Ask Clear Admit thread, which should help answer your questions. Here is a link to the original interface (for those of you who didn't like the recent upgrade). Also, here are the five most recent discussions taking place in the forum:

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Below are the five most recent posts to the GMAT Club message boards.

• OG-12 DS Problem # 61
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• NYU – School of continuing education, Masters in HRM
• Is there a faster way to do this? FDP

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The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton. Here are the five most recent discussions.

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Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

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A selection of the latest updates to MBA blogs compiled by Hella.
MBA Applicants

MBA Students

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The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan
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New York / Stern
North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Stanford
Virginia / Darden
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IESE
INSEAD
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Community blog with MBA student and alum contributors.

Forté Foundation MBA Diaries
Video blog entries posted by women MBA students.

Owen Bloggers
Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students.

Best of Blogging

2008-2009 Top Ten:

• Top 10 Applicants:
• Tieny Chesney
• D.G
• Ahembeea
• Mission MBA
• Soni
• PaloAltoForAwhile
• Choc Heaven
• Helen
• Samantha
• OMGParisHilton

Top 10 Students:

MaybeMBA(Chicago Booth)

JulyDream (Darden)

Paragon2Pieces (McCombs)

HairTwirler (McDonough)

Iday (Chicago Booth)

TinyDancer (Wharton)

CS (Harvard)

Andrew (Marshall)

Mandy (Darden)

M@ (Ross)

Best of Blogging

2007-2008 Top Ten:

• Top 10 Applicants:
• July Dream
• Miss Curly Bee
• VidiViciVeni
• B-School Bound
• Tinydancer
• gltnforpnshmnt
• mbabound08
• Achilles
• Eight Schools
• MBA Runner Girl

• Top 10 Students:
• m@ (Ross)
• MaybeMBA (Chicago)
• Hair Twirler (Georgetown)
• Iday (Chicago)
• J-term Johnny (Columbia)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
• MBA Gladiator (Yale)
• Angel Angie (LBS)
• Necromonger (INSEAD)
• Chrisof Meyer (Darden)

2006-2007 Top Ten:

• Top 10 Applicants:
• Rungee582
• Iday
• Juggler
• Asiangal
• Forrest Gump
• RusGirl
• Hair Twirler
• JatWarrior
• MBA Babe
• Anand

• Top 10 Students:
• Angel Angie (LBS)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• From Cali (Ross)
• Tim K. (McCombs)
• Noelle (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Benny (Tuck)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
• Karlitos (LBS)
• MBA Gladiator (Yale)

2005-2006 Top Ten:

• Top 10 Applicants:
• MBA Jackass
• Marina
• Forrest Gump
• Pupstar78
• Axechick
• Sorebrek
• Angel Angie
• I_Will_Make_It
• Redwolf056
• Vatsa

• Top 10 Students:
• Marquis (Stanford)
• Poweryogi (Chicago)
• KV (LBS)
• FutureMBAGirl (Wharton)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• Vijay (ISB)
• Wakechick (Chicago)
• NoelleBellie (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Olivier (INSEAD)

2004-2005 Top Ten:

• PowerYogi
• Brit-Chick
• bskewl
• WakeChick
• Dave
• Iceman07
• iwhoElse
• Atta Girl
• Aregon23
• Classy

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